1. Technical Field
This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for discouraging animal wildlife from traveling along railway tracks or entering restricted areas in the vicinity of the railway tracks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many types of wildlife that travel on the ground prefer to use railway tracks for movement from one location to another. Bears, deer, elk, sheep, moose, cattle, wolves, foxes and wild horses are examples. The railway tracks provide relatively easy travel when snow is deep in adjacent areas. Railway tracks on bridges provide easier stream or river crossing. Railway tracks through tunnels provide more direct and level routes for moving through mountainous regions. In some cases, wild animals are attracted to the railway track area due to early spring arrival of good forage on the track edges or from grains dropped by the trains travelling on the tracks. In any case, animal wildlife on the tracks is at risk of being injured or killed by trains. Animal wildlife are killed when they try to escape by running down the track with a train approaching as is often the case with bears. Animal wildlife are killed when they are not aware that a train is approaching or when they simply cannot move quickly enough off the track as may happen in the case of a herd of animals on the tracks. Animals may not be able to escape the oncoming train if they are caught on a bridge or in a tunnel. In fact, animal wildlife mortality on railway tracks caused by train impacts is very high in some regions and is threatening the existence of and survival of certain species within several regions of the world. For example, currently the population of grizzly bears in Banff, Canada is thought to be at a population of about sixty individuals. It is believed that grizzly bears are being killed on railway tracks at a rate higher than the rate at which the bears can reproduce new offspring.
It is common to build fences running parallel to the tracks to keep animal wildlife off the tracks. However, at some point the fence must end which leaves an opening to the track. Gates are typically not installed across fence ends or across bridge or tunnel openings, as doing so would impede the movement of trains on the tracks. Furthermore, fences effectively block the normal movement and migration of wild animals and therefore openings across the tracks are necessary to allow animals to move from one side of the tracks to the other for migration and other purposes. This requires that the fence end temporarily to allow a channel or corridor across the tracks for movement. Gates are typically not used to prevent animals from turning and traveling up or down the railway tracks rather than traveling across the tracks from one side to the other, as doing so would impede the movement of trains on the tracks.
Train operators have tried using noise, harassment, foul tasting sprays on track side food sources and beds of upright wooden dowel rods (i.e., “peg boards”) along the railway to deter and prevent movement down the railway by animals. None of these devices have been satisfactory in preventing animal movement on the railway.